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Mohammad Rasoulof says guards in Iran asked him for selfies and to watch his films with him, when he was tied to a bed in a prison hospital.

Speaking at Goteborg Film Festival after the Swedish premiere of his Oscar-nominated The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, Rasoulof related a story from his time in Iranian prison. The director received one-year sentences in both 2019 and 2020 for what Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court described as “propaganda against the system”.

During his imprisonment Rasoulof required an operation, which is only allowed for Iranian prisoners if family members find a hospital willing to carry out the procedure.

The Göteborg Film Festival’s Nordic Film Market announced its production award winners during a ceremony this evening and Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi was among the top honorees.

Ebrahimi won the Tint Post-Production Award, valued at 400,000 Sek, for her solo directorial debut Honor of Persia. The film is produced by Mohammad Farokhmanesh, Ebrahimi, Jacob Jarek, brave new work, Alambic Production and Profile Pictures. The film’s synopsis reads: An old explicit tape is leaked, and Ava Rad, a beloved star of Iranian TV and cinema adored by the religious Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and Iran’s cultural elite, begins a descent into hell. A story of betrayal, a tragicomic portrait of a truly schizophrenic country, between religious totalitarianism and the extravagance of a youth under pressure.

Other top winners were Finnish filmmaker Miia Tervo, who won the Film Finances Scandinavia Award for You Crazy Thing. The...

“Honour of Persia,” the directorial debut of Cannes best actress winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”), is one of five features at financing stage to be pitched at the Göteborg Film Festival’s first-ever Nordic Gateway curated program.

The five international titles – hailing from Germany, Macedonia, Canada and Kosovo – will vie for the Tint Post-Production Award worth Sek 400,000 to be handed out Jan. 30, 2025 during the Göteborg fest industry sidebar Nordic Film Market running Jan. 29-31.

“With Nordic Gateway, we’re introducing an exciting new layer to the Nordic Film Market, creating a space where international projects can connect with Nordic professionals. In today’s challenging financing climate, building meaningful connections and partnerships is more vital than ever to bring strong stories to the screen,” said Josef Kullengård, Head of Industry at the Göteborg Film Festival.

Each project was carefully picked in conjunction with a national organisation or fund, based on its unique artistic value,...

Creativity as a driving force for businesses, the combination of risk and reward, and the experiences of women in leadership positions will be the major themes of Filmfest Hamburg’s Industry Days programme, which runs from September 30 to October 3.

The Industry Days programme will kick off with Filmfest Hamburg’s Explorer Conference, whose speakers include Mia Bays, director of the BFI Filmmaking Fund and Daniel Lamarre, the former CEO of Cirque du Soleil.

Other highlights of the programme include the panel session ‘Inspiring Talk - Women at the Top’ which will bring together the Berlinale Pro’s new director Tanja Meissner,...

Altered Innocence has picked up all U.S. rights to Isabelle Stever’s sixth feature film “Grand Jeté” prior to its premiere on Friday in the Panorama section of Berlinale.

The film stars Sarah Nevada Grether as Nadja, a woman who has estranged herself from her young son in order to be able to concentrate on her ballet career. When she meets the son (played by rising star Emil von Schönfels), who grew up with her mother, again after years at a family party, an affection develops that goes far beyond motherly love. A release is planned for late 2022.

The deal was negotiated between Frank Jaffe from Altered Innocence and Matteo Lovadina from Reel Suspects.

Jaffe commented: “Director Isabelle Stever crafts an intense, but yet very intimate and lyrical film about one woman’s obsession with finding love and tranquility after an intense dancing career with an unlikely companion: her own son.

Mother and son drama is based on the 2017 novel Fürsorge (Care) by German novelist Anne Stelling.

Paris-based sales company Reel Suspects has acquired world sales rights to German director Isabelle Stever’s Grand Jeté ahead of its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama section.

Based on the 2017 novel Fürsorge (Care) by German novelist Anne Stelling, it revolves around the incestuous relationship between a dancer and her young adult son.

US, Berlin-based actress and dancer Sarah Nevada Grether makes her big-screen debut as a mother who estranged herself from her young son in order to be able to concentrate on her ballet career.

European animated films continue to tackle weighty subject matter with diverse works aimed at older and more mature audiences.

A number of celebrated titles last year impressed by tackling historical, political and cultural subject matter in original ways, among them Raúl de la Fuente and Damian Nenow’s European Film Award winner “Another Day of Life,” above, Denis Do’s “Funan,” which took the top prize in Annecy, and Nora Twomey’s “The Breadwinner,” which won a plethora of prizes around the globe.

This year the trend continues with new and upcoming projects that explore wide ranging subject matter, from such sobering themes as the plight of refugees, racism and war to lighter fare like surrealist cinema and quirky romance.

Norwegian director Mats Grorud tackles the politically charged topic of Palestinian refugees in “Wardi” (The Tower). The film follows an 11-year-old girl living with her family in a Beirut refugee...

At the beginning of every month, Ioncinema.com's "Tracking Shot" features a handful of projects that are moments away from lensing and in the same token, we feel are worth signaling out. We ring in the new year with nine titles going into production this month that are worth pointing out. Among the projects that were originally slated for January but are slightly pushed back we have Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton's Will starring Paul Rudd Zach Galifianakis, the new Stephen Daldry film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Polanski's Carnage. This January can officially be called the "Abi Morgan" month as the scribe has not one but two projects that'll be lensed: Steve McQueen’s sex addiction drama Shame, and The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In U.S productions we have Joe Carnahan's The Grey - which we feel is oddly...

At the beginning of every month, Ioncinema.com's "Tracking Shot" features a handful of projects that are moments away from lensing and in the same token, we feel are worth signaling out. This November there is a significant drop in mention worthy titles -- but we have three seasoned auteurs and a female director making her debut. Emir Kusturica is supposed to commence filming a comedy with Tahar Rahim toplining. Commencing a production this late might hinder a Cannes 2011 debut. Cool Water is about two Palestinian brothers who smuggle the dead body of their father from Jerusalem to Ramallah with the Israeli Police, a bunch of terrorists and the Russian Mafia breathing down their necks. Let's hope for the old Kusturica to show up. Terence Davies (another Cannes regular) is adapting Terence Rattigan' play with Rachel Weisz in the lead for The Deep Blue Sea. She plays the wife...

We are pleased to add more images, movie details and, where applicable, videos, to our Sundance 2010 gallery. Just added we have images from the following releases: Cane Toads: The Conquest The South American cane toad’s unstoppable journey across the Australian continent has long been the focus of great controversy and bizarre fascination. The cane toad was introduced to Australia from Hawaii in 1935 in an attempt to control the greyback cane beetle, which at the time was decimating Queensland sugar cane crops....more. Blue Valentine Starring Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman, Ben Shenkman, Faith Wladyka, Maryann Plunkett, Samii Ryan, Eileen Rosen. Blue Valentine is an intimate, shattering portrait of a disintegrating marriage. On the far side of a once-passionate romance, Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) are married with a young daughter. Hoping to save their marriage...more. Kick In Iran The documentary directed by Fatima Abdollahyan...